Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation of Bend, Oregon, USA (formerly Lancair) has completed the qualification testing of three product forms based upon Advanced Composites Group's MTM®46 prepreg resin system.

The materials, which include woven glass fabric, woven carbon fabric and unidirectional carbon prepregs, will be used for the structures of the Columbia 350 and 400 aircraft. Both aircraft are certified to FAR23.

An out of autoclave curing prepreg, MTM46 is capable of producing autoclave quality structures with an oven/vacuum bag cure. It has been designed for applications such as general aviation aircraft where a combination of good wet service temperature with low cost is required. ACG expects to begin supplying materials to Columbia in June 2006.

Information on Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Company can be found at www.flycolumbia.com. Aerospace Sales Manager Chris Ridgard at ACG Inc, Tulsa, USA can be contacted for more technical information at cridgard@acg-us.com.